Lenin stayed in his loge until 10 p.m., when he, too, departed: he had not addressed the Assembly, so as not to give it any semblance of legitimacy. The Bolshevik Central Committee now met in another part of the palace and adopted a resolution dissolving the Assembly. Out of deference to the Left SRs, however, Lenin instructed the Taurida Guard not to use violence: any deputy who wished to leave the building was to be let go, but no one was to be allowed back in.126 At 2 a.m., satisfied that the situation was under control, he returned to Smolnyi.
After the Bolsheviks had departed, Taurida resounded with interminable speeches, frequently disrupted by the guards who had descended from the balcony and filled the seats vacated by the Bolsheviks: many of them were drunk. Some soldiers amused themselves by aiming guns at the speakers. At 2:30 a.m. the Left SRs walked out, at which point commissar P. E. Dybenko, who was in charge of security, ordered the commander of the guard, a sailor, the anarchist A. G. Zhelezniakov, to close the meeting. Shortly after 4 a.m., as the chairman, Victor Chernov, was proclaiming the abolition of property in land, Zhelezniakov mounted the tribune and touched him on the back.* The following scene ensued, as recorded in the minutes:
Citizen Sailor: “I have been instructed to inform you that all those present should leave the Assembly Hall because the guard is tired.”
Chairman: “What instruction? From whom?”
Citizen Sailor: “I am the commander of the Taurida Guard. I have an instruction from the commissar.”
Chairman: “The members of the Constituent Assembly are also tired, but no fatigue can disrupt our proclaiming a law awaited by all of Russia.”
(Loud noise. Voices: “Enough, enough!”)
Chairman: “The Constituent Assembly can disperse only under the threat of force.”
(Noise.)
Chairman: “You declare it.”
(Voices: “Down with Chernov!”)
Citizen Sailor: “I request that the Assembly Hall be immediately vacated.”*
79. Victor Chernov.
While this exchange was taking place more Bolshevik troops crowded into the Assembly Hall, looking very menacing. Chernov managed to keep the meeting going for another twenty minutes, and then adjourned it until 5 p.m. that day (January 6). But the Assembly was not to reconvene, for in the morning Sverdlov had the CEC ratify the Bolshevik resolution dissolving it.127
THE HIRELINGS OF BANKERS, CAPITALISTS, AND LANDLORDS, THE ALLIES OF KALEDIN, DUTOV, THE SLAVES OF THE AMERICAN DOLLAR, THE BACKSTAB-BERS—THE RIGHT SR’S—DEMAND IN THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ALL POWER FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR MASTERS—ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE.
THEY PAY LIP SERVICE TO POPULAR DEMANDS FOR LAND, PEACE, AND [WORKER] CONTROL, BUT IN REALITY THEY TRY TO FASTEN A NOOSE AROUND THE NECK OF SOCIALIST AUTHORITY AND REVOLUTION.
BUT THE WORKERS, PEASANTS, AND SOLDIERS WILL NOT FALL FOR THE BAIT OF LIES OF THE MOST EVIL ENEMIES OF SOCIALISM. IN THE NAME OF THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION AND THE SOCIALIST SOVIET REPUBLIC THEY WILL SWEEP AWAY ITS OPEN AND HIDDEN KILLERS.128
The Bolsheviks had previously linked Russian democratic forces with “capitalists,” “landlords,” and “counterrevolutionaries,” but in this headline they for the first time connected them also with foreign capital.
Two days later (January 8) the Bolsheviks opened their counter-Assembly, labeled “Third Congress of Soviets.” Here no one could obstruct them because they had reserved for themselves and the Left SRs 94 percent of the seats,129 more than three times what they were entitled to, judging by the results of the elections to the Constituent Assembly. The little left over they allocated to the opposition socialists—just enough to have a target for abuse and ridicule. The congress duly passed all the measures submitted to it by government spokesmen, including the “Declaration of Rights.” Russia became a “Federation of Soviet Republics,” to be known as the “Russian Soviet Socialist Republic,” which name she retained until 1924, when she was renamed “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” The congress acknowledged the Sovnarkom as the country’s legitimate governhient, removing from its name the adjective “provisional.” It also approved the principle of universal labor obligation.
The dissolution of the Assembly met with surprising indifference: there was none of the fury which in 1789 had greeted rumors that Louis XVI intended to dissolve the National Assembly, precipitating the assault on the Bastille. After a year of anarchy, Russians were exhausted: they yearned for peace and order, no matter how purchased. The Bolsheviks had gambled on that mood and won. After January 5, no one could any longer believe that Lenin’s men could be talked into abandoning power. And since there was no effective armed opposition to them in the central regions of Russia, and what there was the socialist intelligentsia refused to use, common sense dictated that the Bolshevik dictatorship was here to stay.
